Search Engine for Movie Quotes

I may be late to the party on this one, but I’ve just discovered SUBZIN — a web site that allows you to “find phrases in movies and series.” What’s more, it tells you the running time in the movie, or TV show, that the line appeared.

I don’t know how it’s being updated, how accurate it is, or how long it’s been around, but upon cursory investigation it appears to be pretty comprehensive.

How does this help your screenwriting?

Possibly a few ways. You can:

figure out what movie a particular line was from (to investigate how the writer handled the set up or response to that line)

make sure your dialogue is unique

find out if a word you think you’ve coined has been used before

find out when major plot points occurred in movies that are analogous to your current script (to help you with your script’s structure)

see if you’re using a word correctly (or at least similar to a way it’s been used previously)

12 Comments

LET’S GET OUT OF HERE has been found in 2987 phrases from 2252 movies and series

I’LL BE BACK has been found in 7687 phrases from 5144 movies and series

I HATE YOU has been found in 4820 phrases from 3342 movies and series

I LOVE YOU has been found in 31292 phrases from 9189 movies and series

WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANY MORE has been found in 1 phrases from 1 movies and series … in GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM.

Oh, that’s right; Dorothy had to travel through the fields of Agent Orange to get to the Emerald Hanoi Hilton!

Dr. Who Fan Club(UK)
on December 3, 2010 at 7:34 am

Trever,
Just wondering when there was no internet, folks were so resourceful
and real and build relationships that build writing careers instead of hiding behind google and as if they think they are good or a star when in reality, the LA scene an culture and businessmen are 1 million years ahead of them. Ha, nothing.
So catish – are so unreal. Get going.

Interesting about the famous line from The Wizard of Oz. The subzin search engine seems to depend on how the original text was entered. If you search for the same phrase but use “ANYMORE” instead of “ANY MORE” it will return the right movie, with additional results.

Looks like a cool site… if it worked. Just tried it and got an error. Hopefully it will be ready for prime time soon.

J Popham
on March 28, 2015 at 10:48 pm

Does anyone remember the movie where the protagonist was going to get shot by a bow and arrow, but it hurt the shooter. The other character said something like “nobody can shoot my bow, they won’t be able to use their hand for a month” the protagonist tries to shoot the same bow and hurt themselves as well, it’s a comical scene